Although Boxun is not able to pay for articles, they are highly valued. To make the articles as useful as possible, please strive to include the following information in each one, as specifically as possible, no matter how short the article is. Most contributors already follow these practices, but we present them to answer basic questions about how to prepare a contribution:

WHO – Who is the article about? It might be an individual or a group.

WHAT – What happened to this person or group? Or, what did this person or group do?

WHEN – What is the day or date that this happened? Is it still happening? If not, what day did it end? Please avoid using “yesterday,” “today” or “tomorrow.” These terms quickly go out of date and become confusing.

WHERE – The location of the event, especially the village, city and province.

WHY and HOW – Why and how something happened isn’t always easy to know. You may have rumors, official statements or eyewitness accounts. It is always best not to report rumors. They are most likely to be incomplete, inaccurate or misleading. Official statements also can be inaccurate, misleading or self-serving. But it’s always better to include them so people know how officials are justifying or explaining their actions.

To help readers judge how reliable the information is, try to be specific about the source, whether that’s a person or a government office, a business, a school, a newspaper report, online posts by netizens, etc. If possible, describe the source’s role in the events. If it’s a private citizen who doesn’t want to be identified, give information about how that person came by the information. Is he an eyewitness? A participant? A resident? A victim?

The source of information is especially important when reporting numbers, such as how many villagers were injured, or how many people police arrested, or how many workers demonstrated, to give just a few examples. If you report numbers, be sure to say where those numbers came from – participants, witnesses, police, government, news reports? If possible, try to confirm from a knowledgeable source that the number is accurate.

Never guess, assume or make anything up. It’s perfectly acceptable to write that some information isn’t known or its accuracy can’t be verified.

If you submit a photo or video, please include information about who is in it, where it takes place and what it shows. If signs or banners are displayed, please describe what they say.

Let us know if you can be contacted by email for follow-up questions, in case the editors are unclear about something in your article.